


Anonymous Notoriety

by FeatheryMinx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rigel Black Series - murkybluematter
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Implied Ruse Reveal, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27450559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatheryMinx/pseuds/FeatheryMinx
Summary: How can a girl spend 11 years of her life with only 6 real relationships and still be a happy, healthy child?Here’s how.
Relationships: Adriana "Addy" Potter & Harriet Potter | Rigel Black, Adriana "Addy" Potter & Her Family
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60
Collections: Rigel Black Exchange Round 2





	1. how did she get here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elsin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsin/gifts).



> The first chapter reads a little weird; if you're not a fan, you can absolutely skip to Chapter 2, which does not necessarily require you to have read Chapter 1, and is written more traditionally.

Adriana Potter, all things considered, grew up a happy child. Sure, she didn’t have as many friends her own age as most children (or, for that matter, any friends), nor did she have everpresent siblings to keep her company. No, what she had were 2 loving parents, 2 sweet, doting uncles, and 2… shall we call them occasionally present cousins? Only, they were her sister and her cousin. Only, they were her siblings, only they were never there. This is not to say that Adriana cared for them any less for their absence. No, quite the contrary. For her first 11 years, these 6 people were her entire world. Adriana Potter loves her family with all her heart. This is simply a note on the oddity of her life.

How can a girl spend 11 years of her life with only 6 real relationships and still be a happy, healthy child?

Here’s how.

For the first 3 years of her life, not that she remembers it, things are normal. She’s passed around at formal functions and cooed over, as any child in polite society would be. Even more so, because of how old her sister is, and how surprising she is, and how absolutely wondrous it is when families have more than one magical child. But again, she doesn’t remember this.

For the fourth year of her life, one that she only remembers hazy flashes of, her life was chaos. Her siblings’ ruse was revealed, her family spent almost every waking day in an office somewhere or in court, there were owls constantly flying in and out of her room. She could walk by then, and spent half of her time toddling away from where her parents kept her, much to their dismay.

Once everything was settled in court, her family stayed home with her. Her uncles just about moved in with her family, and the four of them combined, along with her siblings during holidays, were plenty to keep her entertained. She worked on jigsaw puzzles with her mum and got piggyback rides from her dad. She played with animals, both conjured and stuffed, or made her uncles help her with little crafts. She listened to the stories her brother and sister told her, and then made up her own when they weren’t there.

When she was seven, her siblings came home. It wasn’t long before they both found something nearby to occupy their time and they moved right back out, but for almost a year, she got to see them every single day. They played with her, indulged her imagination, her creativity. They also taught her things most seven year olds wouldn’t have any conception of.

When she was eight, she got a wand. Her family fought for weeks before they took her to Ollivanders. Mostly, it was when she was supposed to be asleep, and they would be downstairs. They thought she couldn’t hear them, so they didn’t use Silencing Charms. She was too young, her mum and Uncle Sirius said. But she’d devoured everything her siblings had taught her, been so _interested_ , Uncle Remus said. But they couldn’t take her out to more than the occasional gala, at which she stuck to her parents' side and spoke just as rarely as they did, her dad said. What else were they to do?

When she was eight, she got a wand. She didn’t do much with it, but she had it. She started practicing basic defensive spells, _Protego_ and _Petrificus Totalus_ and the occasional _Silencio_. She learned to levitate things, and she pranked her family as much as she could with her new skill. She looked through her brother’s old healing textbooks, learned to patch up the skinned knees she got while running around outside. She brewed, so she would have something to talk to her sister about when she visited. Her family was there every step of the way. Unbeknownst to her, her family—the adults, at least—also exchanged certain _looks_ above her head, looks of worry, of a little fear and a lot of guilt.

But she was happy. She loved her family, and she was happy. That would have to be enough.


	2. where will she go

Addy woke up the morning after her sister’s birthday to a large commotion. When she went down into the kitchen, her family fell silent. “Good morning, Mum, Dad, everyone.” She looked around, noticing how they were almost vibrating in their effort to stay quiet. “What has all of you gathered so early in the morning?”

Harry walked over to her, arms tucked behind her back. “You’ll never guess what we just got!” Addy glared at her, and Harry handed over a thick sealed envelope. It was addressed to Adriana Potter, and when she flipped it over, she saw a four-sectioned crest pressed into the wax.

“My Hogwarts letter!” Addy squealed, and the rest of her family burst into cheers. Grinning, Addy broke the seal and began looking through the envelope’s contents. She could feel Harry at her back, reading the letter over her shoulder.

When Addy finished reading, she handed the papers to her parents. Harry pulled her back and just looked at her for a moment, then leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. “Congrats, Addy,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

Addy hugged her sister tightly. “ _Thank you_ ,” she whispered in kind.

* * *

Other than that spot of excitement, the rest of the summer went by as it always did. Addy did have to pop down to Diagon Alley to buy her school robes, what few books she couldn’t find at her house, and some other school supplies, but that wouldn’t be a big affair. It never was. Diagon Alley was a place of business. If she ever wanted to pass time by shopping, she would travel not to the formal, stilted shops of Diagon Alley, but instead to the comfortable streets of the Lower Alleys.

Addy wasn’t allowed to go out by herself—no matter how much her sister might have done so in _her_ youth—but she didn’t mind having company. Uncle Remus dutifully followed her as she flitted between shops. When she’d gathered everything from her list, she turned to her uncle and took his hand so that he could Apparate them back home.

Instead of taking her home like she expected, Remus walked her to _The Magical Menagerie_. Addy’s eyes widened. “I’m getting a pet?”

“Surprise! We wanted to make this Diagon trip memorable for you. After all, it’s going to be your first year going to Hogwarts!”

Addy hugged Remus, then rushed inside. There were all manner of creatures, both magical and not, but she knew exactly what she wanted. She went straight to the wall of owls, looking for the perfect one. A flash of white caught her eye, and she turned to see a beautiful snowy owl. “Excuse me, miss? How much for that owl, the white one?”

“You have good taste, my dear. She’s 30 galleons, though if you want to buy her a cage, perch, and food, it’ll probably cost you more around 40.”

Addy began counting out the coins from her purse. Her uncle moved next to her, and upon seeing his flattened lips, she stilled. “I can get her, right?”

“You can, but… Are you sure you want an owl?”

“Absolutely! How else am I going to send everyone letters?”

Remus’ lips thinned even more at that, which worried Addy.[1] After a moment, he said, “Put your money away.” Addy stared at him in shock, not having actually expected him to tell her no. “This is a gift, you’re not paying for her.”

Addy elbowed him in the hip and whined, “Uncle Remus, that wasn’t funny! I genuinely thought you wouldn’t let me get her.”

“As if we could deny you anything, sweetheart.” Addy giggled and grabbed the cage, leaving Remus to carry the owl food and the rest of her school supplies. “Do you know what you’re going to name her?”

“No clue! I’ll ask for suggestions when we get home.”

“Alright. Hold tight.” With that, Remus took Addy’s hand and Apparated them both home.

They reappeared in the living room, where Addy set down her new owl and yelled, “Mum, Dad, Sirius, we’re back!”

“Did you have fun?” said a voice behind her. Addy whirled around and tackled the speaker in a hug.

“Archie!” When she let go of him, she saw her sister a few steps behind. “Harry!” She gave her sister a hug as well, then asked, “I thought you two had a conference, what are you doing here? Wait, wait, did you know that they were going to let me get a pet?”

Archie pouted at her. “Addy, you wound me. How could you ever believe I would miss your last day before you head to Hogwarts?”

Harry rolled her eyes at his antics. “We left early. And yes, we knew about the surprise.” She arched her neck forward, then said, “Come on, introduce us. What’d you get, what’s its name?”

By that point, the rest of her family had made it into the living room, so Addy plopped onto a couch with her owl. “As everyone can see,” she said, waving her hands in a wild approximation of a show host, “we have here today with us a beautiful snowy owl. Isn’t she gorgeous? Unfortunately, she does _not_ come to us with a name, so it is up to the present company to decide what she will be called.”

“You don’t want to name her yourself?”

“Well, if I’d known I’d be getting a pet any sooner than half an hour ago, maybe, but I can’t think of a good name now.”

“Hmmm, what about Reaper?” Everyone looked at Sirius exasperatedly, and he threw up his hands. “What? I’m serious! It’s ironic, because she’s white, and everyone would expect an owl named Reaper to be black.”

“Uncle Sirius, why would I name my owl ironically? What’s she done to deserve that?”

“I suppose you have a point…” Sirius stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I’ll keep thinking.”

“I’d suggest Iris or Snowdrop, but I think your mother’s got a monopoly on flower names.”

“James!” laughed Lily, swatting at him. “Those are nice names though, if you want to use them.”

“They are nice, Mum, but I don’t think they’re it.”

Archie said, “What about Hedwig? The name’s stuck in my head for some reason, though I can’t remember from where.”

“It’s from my History of Magic textbook, Archie, back in first year. I’m surprised you remember it, after all this time.”

“That’s like, the only thing I remember from that year. But how about it, Addy?”

“Hedwig,” she murmured. Regardless of its origins, it _was_ a pretty name. Stroking her owl’s white feathers, she said, “What do you think girl? You like ‘Hedwig’?” The owl hooted quietly, as if in approval. “Hedwig it is.”

* * *

That night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Addy crept downstairs and made her way to the living room. She unlocked Hedwig’s cage and curled up on the couch, letting Hedwig perch on her. Addy sat in the dark for a long while just stroking Hedwig.

Suddenly, a light appeared from the stairs. Addy hissed, moving her hand to block the painful brightness.

“Addy?”

“Harry, what are you doing up?”

“Jet lag?”

“You didn’t fly back though, you took a Portkey.”

Harry laughed. “Addy, that’s not how jetlag works. Regardless of how I got here, I’m still used to their time, that’s why I couldn’t sleep. Why are you down here?”

Addy focused her eyes on Hedwig and mumbled, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“You couldn’t sleep, huh? Budge over.” Addy did so, and Harry sat next to her. “Can I?” she asked, gesturing towards Hedwig. Wordlessly, Addy gave the owl to her sister. “Why can’t you sleep?” Addy shrugged. “Are you nervous?”

“A little bit, I guess.”

“I was nervous before my first day at Hogwarts too.”

“But that’s not the same thing!” Addy cried. “You had a reason to be nervous, you were switching with Archie. I’m just being silly.”

“Hey, hey, don’t do that to yourself. You know that’s not true.” Harry wrapped her arm around Addy, pulling her closer. “Our situations may not be the exact same, but you and I both know that you have plenty of reason to be nervous. And that’s okay, poppet. You can be nervous and still get there and have a great time.”

“Yeah, I just…”

Harry sighed. “I know. For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”

“Shut up, Harry. I wouldn’t even be able to go if it wasn’t for you, I certainly don’t blame you.” Reaching over, she flicked Harry. “You know what I do blame you for though? Stealing my owl. Give her back before I set Dad on you for petty theft.”

“Oh, no, the horror,” she monotoned, handing Hedwig over. Both girls laughed.

Neither of them moved from the couch, even as the hours passed. Addy began falling asleep while stroking Hedwig. “Harry?” she said sleepily.

“Hm?”

“Love you.”

“Love you too, poppet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1]  
> Remus is worried about her staying isolated by leaning too heavily on her family, which is all she's known. That's how he grew up; what with the lycanthropy and all, his parents didn't want him going out. If he hadn't met James and Sirius (and Peter) who kind of _forced_ him into becoming friends, he likely would have stayed a loner all through Hogwarts.
> 
> It's both better and worse for Addy. On the one hand, her childhood has been happy. She's been loved and cherished, which is great, considering how Remus' parents weren't cruel, but weren't especially sweet. On the other hand, having such a loving family in conjunction with the isolated childhood means she doesn't really have any incentive at all to form relationships outside of those she already has.
> 
> His worry is not entirely unfounded. Admittedly, Harry and Archie both had additional reasons to keep to themselves, but the truth is that they both would have done/did exactly what Remus is worried about. Archie made exactly one friend, which is better than none, but only just barely. Harry was prepared to ignore all her peers in favor of keeping up the ruse. The children of this family are rather easily satisfied (socially, at least). That's great if it works for them, but is it isn't at all ideal, and Remus really hopes that Addy doesn't follow the same pattern.

**Author's Note:**

> The title of the fic has less to do with the contents of the fic and more to do with its background.   
> Addy is purposefully isolated, as opposed to the seemingly natural isolation of Archie and Harry. When the ruse was revealed, there was a lot of negativity from the pureblood community, as expected. Sure, the reveal resulted in some positive legal changes (such as allowing _rich_ halfbloods back into Hogwarts), and a decent measure of social change for most halfbloods (at least after the near-decade it's been since the reveal), but for Adriana Potter specifically, it's going to cause a lot of problems. She's the halfblood sister of the most notorious, upstart halfblood of their generation. So she's notorious due to no fault of her own, and anonymous (isolated) to try and spare her the effects of that notoriety.


End file.
